The results of the research project are summarized in the followings.(1)Basic Architecture of Autonomous Distributed Manufacturing SystemsA basic architecture of the distributed manufacturing systems is discussed from the viewpoint of production planning, process planning and resource planning of the machine products. Systematic procedures are proposed in the distributed decision-making environment, in order to generate suitable plans based on the volumes and the varieties of the products to be manufactured in the manufacturing systems. Communication interfaces among the decision-making units are also discussed for the information exchange among the autonomous decision-making units.(2)Development of Production Planning, Process Planning and Resource Planning SystemsAutonomous distributed systems are developed, based on the basic architecture proposed in (1), to carry out the production planning, process planning and resource planning of the manufacturing systems. In the research projec
… Morets, a real-time scheduling system is proposed to generate the production schedules real-timely, based on the process plans of the products to be manufactured. This system provides us a systematic method to generate a suitable production schedules when executing the manufacturing processes. An integrated process planning and scheduling system is also developed to generate both the process plans and the production schedules in the planning phase.(3)Development of Simulation System and Verification of Autonomous Distributed Manufacturing SystemA simulation system is developed, by applying the multi-agent programming method, in order to simulate the process planning and the scheduling process of the manufacturing systems. Some case studies have been carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed systems, by applying the developed simulation system. It was shown, through case studies, that the proposed systems are effective from the viewpoint of the integration of the production planning, the process planning and the resource planning for the autonomous distributed manufacturing systems. Less